Effects of food safety education on knowledge, attitude, and practice of schoolchildren in southern Taiwan: A propensity score-matched observational study

Abstract

Foodborne illness is a common public health problem. To avoid foodborne illness, many studies suggested that food safety education was an effective way. In Taiwan, a food safety course is formally taught to sixth graders. The study aims to evaluate effects of the food safety course on knowledge, attitude, and practice of the sixth graders when compared to the schoolchildren in fifth grade. A repeated observational study was conducted in the Yunlin County, Taiwan from 2016 to 2017 and then matched with propensity scores to reduce confounding. Of 805 questionnaires, 773 (96%) were completed without missing values or invalid answers. After matching, both of fifth and sixth grades had 267 questionnaires. The results suggested that the food safety course could improve the sixth graders' knowledge about food poisoning, food preservation, and food additives, change their attitudes towards food additives, promote the practice of personal hygiene, and pay more attention to food labeling and packaging when buying food. However, around one half of the sixth graders still agreed that those food products containing additives were not good food, and more than seventy percent of the schoolchildren agreed that flavoring agents had harmful effects on human health. From the results of quantile regression, parents working as professionals, technicians, associate professionals, and armed forces occupations could improve their children's knowledge, attitude, or practice regarding food safety. Nevertheless, boys had negative attitudes towards food safety, and mothers as skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers could worsen their children's attitude towards food safety.